The History Of Every Canceled Predator Movie

To say that the Predator is an icon is putting it mildly. He's one of science fiction's most recognizable creations: a B-movie testament to the power of imaginative creature design. And yet, while the Predator can absolutely break legs (and spines, and skulls), he simply cannot seem to catch a break when it comes to green-lighting sequels.

From subpar Alien crossovers to decades-long gaps in production, the Predator's cinematic trajectory is slippery and full of setbacks. Indeed, if we're being generous, the franchise boasts only one true hit, namely 1987's Predator. And for those of you keeping score at home, it took 23 years and three more attempts before the franchise finally produced a decent sequel. Even then, 2010's wildly under-appreciated Predators only received middling reviews and a lukewarm reception at the box office. Despite its demonstrated success as a big-screen baddie, the Predator just can't catch a break.

Suffice to say, the question of how to make another Predator film has puzzled executives and screenwriters since the franchise's inception. For every sequel that successfully clawed its way into movie theaters, there's an unmade take that wowed on paper but floundered in development. Here's a breakdown of all the Predator movies that never made it to the big screen.

At the end of Predator 2, an elder Predator gifts our hero Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) with a trophy for being, well, heroic. While gargling at Harrigan to "take it," the Predator extends an antique pistol engraved with the inscription "Raphael Adolini 1715." It's a memorable moment that hints at just how long the Predators have been terrorizing our planet. It also raises a whole swath of questions that, it turns out, were intended to find answers in a sequel that never materialized.

As brotherly director/writer duo Jim and John Thomas note in the Predator 2 director's commentary, they were constantly toying around with the idea of a Predator film set on Earth in a time before modern weapons. "We played around on the set [with] doing something historical," the brothers recall. "Like, in a time where you had nothing but steam engines and flintlocks and you were up against something like [the Predator]. That could be fun."

The brothers' idle (if very compelling) brainstorming sessions never materialized into anything concrete. To be fair, Predator 2's negative critical reception and disappointing box office returns weren't exactly an incentive to immediately move forward on another sequel. And yet, while we were robbed of a big-screen Predator period piece, that didn't stop Dark Horse Comics from picking up the Thomas brothers' enticing engraved pistol and running with it. Published in July 1996 and written by Henry Gilroy, Predator: 1718 tells the story of Raphael Adolini, his pistol, and how the Predators in Predator 2 came to acquire it. Set in the Bermuda Triangle, the comic paints Adolini as a pirate captain suddenly faced with a rebellious crew and an unlikely alien ally. And you know what? If you flip the pages of the comic book really fast, you can pretend that 20th Century Fox had the wherewithal to turn Predator: 1718 into a movie.

While waiting to work on Desperado in the early 1990s, Robert Rodriguez wrote a script for a third Predator film. An unconfirmed copy of his script has since made the rounds on the internet, and it is, to put it mildly, completely bananas. The story begins on an alien planet, where a group of humans outfitted in Predator armor attack a Spanish galleon. The cloaked attackers overwhelm the ship and transport their captive, Dutch(!), to a prison planet. The planet also happens to be a gladiatorial training ground for "teen" Predators, replete with, among other things, human-alien hybrids.

As relayed by IGN, Rodriguez approached Arnold Schwarzenegger about returning to his original role as Dutch. Supposedly there was even a role in the script written for the man, myth, and flexible legend Jean-Claude Van Damme. We'd like to think he was going to be the character who gets so hungry he barbecues and eats a Predator (no, really).

Rodriguez' script would ultimately morph into 2010's Predators thanks to an extensive overhaul by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch. However, at the time, Fox passed on the script because Rodriguez's sequel was simply too ambitious and expensive. "It was this crazy, intense off-world story," Rodriguez recalled to the Los Angeles Times. "There was just no way it could be made. The technology wasn't there yet." Well, we now have the technology for a Predator film with a Spanish galleon in it. So get on that, Hollywood!

It's always a treat when directors share tidbits from unmade projects, but in 2015, Vincenzo Natali went the extra mile by tweeting a slew of concept art for, among other things, a tentative Predator reboot. The visual pitch, featuring art by Amro Attia and Dan Billigan, offers a brief, if basic, glimpse into what we could have seen: an expressionistic jungle war zone, a sleek and spiky Predator, and a brutal gladiatorial showdown. Natali pitched his take on what would ultimately become Predators with nothing but a log line: "Predators hunt humans on their planet." "It was fun to do because it was wide open," Natali Tweeted. 

During his appearance on the Best Movies Never Made podcast, Natali elaborated on his visual treatment: "When I was called in to pitch... there was nothing. There was no script. There was only the notion that this was going to take place on a Predator planet... and there was kind of — I think there was a Dangerous Game aspect to it with humans being hunted by Predators... I met with Robert Rodriguez and some executives — separately — and I just did a whole bunch of drawings." Evidently, nothing ever came from that bunch of drawings. And that's a shame, because the idea of the director of Cube and Splice taking a stab at a Predator movie sounds like a match made in sci-fi horror heaven.